Warbird Stories

[Matt Gunsch]

was thinking this might be a interesting topic, stories you were told while crewing a warbird, one of my favorites goes like this:
I was with the AZ wing of the CAF and we were putting on one of our first shows, it was supposed to be a Fri-Sun show, and we were behind on Fri, still setting up and such. I was getting ready to get some lunch when a older gentleman came up to the B-17. Since it was just the 2 of us, I took him thru the plane giving the usual tour talk, once we got to the nose, since it was just him and me, I took down the ropes and let him sit in the bombadiers seat. That is when it happened, he changed. He started to tell me about the 2 B-17s he had shot out from under him. He was a Bombadier in the 8th AF and had a fighter shoot out the nose, while he was bent over the sight, kilingl the navigator, they made it back to base. The other B-17 was shot down and he became a POW. For over a hour, while in the nose of Sentimental Journey, we talked.
The next day he returned with his daughter and grand daughter and found me over at the B-25, we talked for a while and he showed me a picture of him and his crew. After a bit his grand daughter tugged on the bottom of his jacket and said, show it to him grampa. He proceeded to take a hankerchief from his pocket and held it in the palm of his hand, he unfolded it and inside was a side profile view of a B-17,carved out of wood, bombbay doors open, complete with unit markings and stars and bars. He told me he made it while in the POW camp out of one of the bed slats from his bunk, he said, that is the Germans had found this on him he would have been shot.
I could not have thanked him enough for sharing his story with me, and it reminds me of what these people were like.
I have lots of other stories for later, but this is one of my favorites.

Whos next ?

[Obergrafeter]

About a year ago at one of our static displays a gentleman came up that had a Purple Heart Society name tag from a convention across town. I asked him what war he was in and said he flew in WWII,Korea, and Vietnam.
He said he flew 38's , 51's,86's and 105's. Asked him about his training and he said advanced at Ellington. Pressed for what type aircraft he said it was in something I surely never heard of. I responded with what AT-10's and he was amazed that anybody knew of them. Imagine his surprise when I told him I had one. He had not seen one since the war and didn't know any existed. I told him the only complete one I knew of was at Dayton.
Too soon his tour had to leave but what an enjoyable disscussion. Turns out he flew Thunderchiefs with my uncle in Europe.

[oscardeuce]

The story from one of the FACs who flew my O2-A in combat, The day I almost lost her...before I found her! Amazing what a single AK round can do to an aircraft.



My first experience with enemy
ordnance occurred while flying 862. I Took an AK round through the elevator
trim assembly. Still have part of the severed chain linkage somewhere in a
drawer upstairs. The sound was identical to a basketball hitting a
backboard and my brain wondered who the hell was out playing with a
basketball that morning. (Sounds of bullet impacts one hears during movies
are nonsense.) Next, experienced runaway full nose-up trim. Pulled the
circuit breaker. Made no difference. It required force of both knees
pushing forward on the yoke to maintain level flight. Considered flying
out over the ocean and leaving by parachute. Wore a backpack. Finally
decided to pickle off the remaining willie petes, take it back to Phan
Thiet, then land it. Phan Thiet's runway was PSP . The runway began at
the edge of a vertical cliff about 300 feet above the water. Flew the
thing home with my knees, made an uneventful landing, taxied to the
revetment and shut down both engines. The crew chief, SGT Salley, stuck
his head in through the door and asked if I had any write-ups. Told him
the bird had runaway trim. He disappeared and I continued filling out the
781 form. Less than a minute later SGT Salley reappeared with a huge smile
on his face. "You don't have a runaway trim -- you got a bullet through
the elevator and trim tab!" First clue I had as to causality.


BTW the repair from this damage is still visible.

[Tim Landers]

A friend of mine was a B-24 Bombadier and is lucky to be alive! Here is a site I put together. http://petekonduros1.blogspot.com/2005/ ... osion.html

Tim

[PJ]

A friend of mine's father flew 35 missions with the 9th Air Force 463rd B.G. from Foggia,Italy. He was a bombardier in a B-17. This was the "Swoose Group" commanded by Colonel Frank Kurtz. On a Christmas Day 1944 mission, Wally was lead bomber. After completing the bomb run, his oxygen mask froze up rendering him unconcious. Luckily, someone noticed and got oxygen to him,or he would have died. He also flew against some of the first German jets. Said the more missions he flew, the more confident he became that he would return to the States in one piece.
PJ

[groundpounder]

hi there this is my first post on your website. i thought i might share this story with you. it is about the bailout of my dads friend, richard jenkins. Richard was a gunner on several b24 bombers assigned to the 34th bomb group 7th squadron in mendlesham england. the plane he was on at this time was named shadrach. there are several photos of this plane on the valor to victory website, and an amazing photo of the actual incident that i am about to describe. if anybody out there has any photos of richard or any planes from his group i would love to see them!! this is an excerp from richards personal diary that my dad was given by his widow after his passing two years ago. please forgive my poor typing. 'i suppose i should now recite here my greatest and narrowest escapement of death which took place aug. 5 1944 on my 20th mission."flack at 4 oclock level" were the last words i heard. thats how 9 months of living in hell started. the ship was hit directly by [?] mm shell between number 3 and 4 engines.we started burning, the rest was natural. being at 24000 feet it was not hard to bail out.when i jumped i unconciously pulled my rip cord too soon. my chute opened at about 18000 feet. it took about 15 minutes to hit the ground. that was the lonliest 15 minutes of my life, and i will never be able to express my fears through that period of time and all my thoughts. i must have lived every second of my previous life over in detail. when i hit the ground i was lucky for i hit the ground in soft mud very near a lake. this was lucky because i had lost one of my boots and a hard spot wouldnt have done me very much good. my arrival in germany was no secret, because a whole village from nearby was on me in nothing flat. women childeren old men and soldiers also. here my real trouble began. first i was kicked and threatened by a soldier with a bayonet. i could not understand a word and maybe its just as well i didnt since they werent expressing wishes for my good health im sure. one old man took the greatest delight in boxing my ears while marching me up a dusty road another old woman got a big kick out of placing her foot in various places. this took place until we arrived at thier village, about half a mile from where i had landed. at the village i saw that they had two of my crewmembers. here the 3 of us stood together about 10 feet apart. at first i seemed to be the center of attraction, a fellow who seemed to be a storm trooper was giving me a bad time- i was begining to think my teethwere a thing of the past , when he quit and went over to one of the other two crewmembers. this fellow being dark and having sharp features was taken for a jew. the stormtrooper started to beat him even more furiously, he acted like a mad man- taking a small automatic out he shot him in the temple, killing him instantly. at that instant an old man with a shotgun, pushing a bicycle motioned me to move onto the road. i did so- i had not gone fifty yards when i heard the screaming of the stormtrooper come rushing up behind me. it seemed that just as i stumbled he clipped me with the automatic on the back of the head. that stumble saved my life i think, for i caught only part of the blow, which was swung in an arc at me. it only cut me in the back of the head and knocked me down for a second. i knew i had to stay on my feet if i wanted to live at all for im positive he would have finished me off had i laid there for any time at all. finally my other crewmember and i were taken to what was probably a village police constables house. here we lay under a cherry tree while we awaited luftwaffe authorities. i know know how animals feel in a zoo. the diary goes on to describe further mistreatment along the way to stalag luft 4, and eventually the march of death. richard was a very good man and i will allways remember him kindly. ill post more later if asked to. once again if anyone has any info concerning richard jenkins of 34th bs 7th squadron or julian hess his buddy or his captain john terry it would be greatly appreciated. great site by the way!!!!!!!!!! sim roberts@ meanded@hotmail.com

[RareBear]

I was sitting next to an older gentleman in the church choir on Wednesday evening at practice. I had just joined the choir, and didn't know him. I introduced myself, and we chatted a minute. Later, I was talking about the B-17 "Aluminum Overcast" which was to be at a local airport over the week-end, and that I was going out to see it. The fellow I had just met said to look him up when I came to see the B-17, as he was a member of the local EAA chapter and would be giving the tours. We talked some more, and he told me he had been a waist gunner on a B-17 during the war, and had flown 20-plus missions over Germany. He then said he had a favorite story about his time on the bomber, and did I want to hear it? I told him of course I did, and he recounted the tale.

Seems like about halfway through his tour, they were issued the newly developed electrically heated coveralls. He really like the idea of them, and looked forward to his first mission where he would get to use them. That time came and he gathered up all his gear and climbed into the aircraft. After climbing to altitude, he began to get cold, and thought he'd try out the new suit. He put it on, and after searching for a bit, discovered he had left the power cord to it behind. A good idea rendered less useful by a more than slight oversight. He said it did keep him a little warmer, but that was the last time he forgot the cord.

He went on to recount many more tales, but this was the most unique.

Walt

[wendovertom]

While the 509th were stationed in Wendover this mishap occured:

George Marquardt was assigned as to certify air crews proficiency with the assigned mission in silverplate B-29s.

One crew successfully pre flighted and conducted thier mission to and from the Salton sea bomb range. However on return to Wendover one of the engines developed a fire. Initially the A/C commander thought they could put it out. No success. the crew were all getting ready to bail out even though the order had not been given when Wendover field appeared in sight. The pilot tried to calm all fears by announcing thye could make the airfield no problem! The crew's pucker factor went up a bit but they all believed in thier pilot and George. As they came in on final it was apperant that there was no time to line up with an actual runway but they werre perfectly aligned with a taxiway! A number of groundcrews were watching this smoking plane come in and realized they were going to land on the taxiway as well. The pilot made a perfect landing on the taxiway and immediatly ordered the crew to jump - a groundman said they were, "poppin' outta that plane like crazy and rolling around all banged up from the dirt and taxiway". The plane used most of the taxiway to stop but did come to a complete halt and all escaped with no injury. The main spar did burn through and the wing failed just moments after coming to a complete stop. George gave the whole crew an excellent review for remaining calm and performing under pressure. Whew! I have the account at home with the crew number and all, i just can't remember it right now. Sadly, George Marquardt passed a few years ago after a long battle with illness.

Tom P.

[leo]

I was at Madera in 93 when Tier Destefanie brought his P-47. We had talked to him earlier in the day while watching it make passes.
Later that day my friend and I were admiring the plane and talking about the function of varios vents, etc. (true warbird geeks) when a man behind us corrected us on a small point. I asked him "do you know the P-47" to which he replied "I'd like to think so, though the last time I seen one it was crashing into the Burmese jungle after I bailed out".
He had spent time as a prisoner and had not been near a warplane since. The sound and sight of it flying over his house had brought him out to the show.
I pointed out Tiger, told him it was the owner and he should walk up and tell him his story. A few minutes later he was sitting in the cockpit with tears rolling down his cheeks...

My second was while crewing a T-6 at a show we had a short little old woman sneak past the ropes and walk around the plane, gently touching it here and there. We started to stop her when the owner realized she was doing a preflight. When she got back around to us she asked if she could see the cockpit, then climbed in like she had been doing it all her life. We asked if she had ever flown one and she laughingly told us she probably had more T-6 time than we had total time, and had flown everything from Stearmans to B-26's. Turns out she was one of the original WASP's. I don't remember her name but we sure learned a lot that day!

[RickH]

The CF A-26 was at an airshow in northern Alabama when a fella walked up to the crew and informed them that this was HIS airplane. The serial number 4-35696 was on the tail in the proper place but she carried 3rd BG markings. He proceeded to tell the crew that he was the Korean crew cheif on 696 while it was at Pusan (K9). Said that he would never forget that number as he had to call the tower whenever they did engine runs. Her revetment was on the approach end of the runway and the tower would call them to pull back to idle if someone was landing.

The crew came home passed on the info about this guy who thought he was the crew chief . After several phone calls and some Korean era photos he took were blown up by the Birmingham AG Recce guys it was established that he really was her crew chief ! He told me to look under a bombbay actuator cover and look for a small nonstructural scab patch and follow it through the frames in the gunners compartment. He said the patches should get smaller as they progressed toward the back of the compartment. I looked and they were there ! He also told me to look under the wings just short of where the tips screwed on. Said there should be two oval patches under each wing. They were there and on top there were two large access panels. We drilled them out and found the support structure for the air to ground homing antennas as well as the coax antenna cable!

From there we researched her history found out that she ahd flown over 100 documented combat missions and proceeded to put her back into her own wartime combat markings.